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Showing posts from May, 2013

How to Do ISP Programming – Part 4: Fuses and Troubleshooting

Setting Fuses As mentioned before, fuses are used to set a couple of things that might need to be set before the actual software starts to run. As a beginner you should not tinker with most of those settings, because it is possible to lock yourself out of in-system programming. The most dangerous fuse bits in that respect are SPIEN (SPI enable) for obvious reasons and RSTDISBL (reset

How to Do ISP Programming – Part 3: Software Usage

Installing the Software As mentioned, there are many options when it comes to software. One standard program, which is available for many operating systems is avrdude. Unfortunately, it is a command line tool, which makes it less than ideal for beginners. But there are GUI frontends available. I decided to use AVRDUDESS for this tutorial. And it is quite easy to use. But first,

How to Do ISP Programming – Part 2: Hardware Considerations

What Hardware do I need? Obviously you need the controller. This can be any Atmel ATtiny or ATMega. You need a circuit board to put the controller in (the "target board") and you need an ISP programmer. Since ISP uses a serial format, the programmer can be rather compact. There is a wide variety of programmers on the market, from full featured expensive to cheap and simple. Since

How to Do ISP Programming – Part 1: The Theory

Introduction Many of my projects use AVR controllers from Atmel. And they need to be "programmed". This means that the software needs to get written into their internal program memory. For beginners, this can be a major stumbling block in any project. And I do get lots of questions in connection with programming. So I decided to write this tutorial. But my intention is not just to

Another simple electronics project for kids

Project Features Simple Cheap Doesn't take long Can be done by children (with a little help) Introduction One of my sons recently started to nag me. He wanted to solder something. Initially I had no idea what he could solder and I thought he was simply bored. But he kept going and I knew I had to find something. Finally I remembered that it would be "Blue Night" soon and that I